I. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a cart corral of the type employed by supermarkets and the like to store carts, such as grocery carts, in a parking lot.
II. Description of the Related Art
Tubular steel cart corrals are commonly used in parking lots for temporary storage of carts, such as grocery carts, prior to removing the carts to within the store or a storage structure. Steel tubular cart corrals are a relatively new element provided by stores to aid in preventing carts from damaging vehicles parked in the parking lot. The cart corral was developed to encourage consumers to park the carts within the corral structure after emptying the contents of their cart within their vehicle. By providing a cart corral, store owners hope to eliminate the problem of runaway carts and stray carts scattered throughout the parking structure. That is, consumers generally attempted to park their cart at all different angles to prevent the cart from rolling downhill and smashing into other vehicles after the consumer had emptied his goods from the cart into his vehicle.
A disadvantage of these previously known steel tubing cart corrals is that they require maintenance because they rust. A further disadvantage of currently available steel cart corrals is that once they are assembled, they essentially become fixed in that location. A still further disadvantage of currently available steel cart corrals is that once they are assembled and assume a certain profile, they cannot be disassembled and readily reassembled to conform to a differently shaped cart corral. Hence, although such steel cart corral assemblies exist, they are high maintenance and are not easily removed from one location and reassembled in another location.